This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
I'm on my way, I'm making it
I've got to make it show, yeah
So much larger than life
I'm going to watch it growing
The place where I come from is a small town
They think so small
They use small words
But not me
I'm smarter than that
I worked it out
I've been stretching my mouth
To let those big words come right out
I've had enough, I'm getting out
To the city, the big big city
I'll be a big noise with all the big boys
There's so much stuff I will own
And I will pray to a big god
As I kneel in the big church
Big time
I'm on my way-I'm making it
Big time big time
I've got to make it show yeah
Big time big time
So much larger than life
Big time
I'm going to watch it growing
Big time
My parties all have big names
And I greet them with the widest smile
Tell them how my life is one big adventure
And always they're amazed
When I show them 'round my house, to my bed
I had it made like a mountain range
With a snow-white pillow for my big fat head
And my heaven will be a big heaven
And I will walk through the front door
Big time
I'm on my way, I'm making it
Big time
Big time
I've got to make it show, yeah
Big time
Big time
So much larger than life
Big time
I'm going to watch it growing
Big time
Big time
My car is getting bigger
Big time
My house getting bigger
Big time
My eyes getting bigger
Big time
And my mouth
Big time
My belly is getting bigger
Big time
And my bank account
Big time
Look at my circumstance
Big time
And the bulge in my big big big big big big
Big big big big big big big big big
I've got to make it show, yeah
So much larger than life
I'm going to watch it growing
The place where I come from is a small town
They think so small
They use small words
But not me
I'm smarter than that
I worked it out
I've been stretching my mouth
To let those big words come right out
I've had enough, I'm getting out
To the city, the big big city
I'll be a big noise with all the big boys
There's so much stuff I will own
And I will pray to a big god
As I kneel in the big church
Big time
I'm on my way-I'm making it
Big time big time
I've got to make it show yeah
Big time big time
So much larger than life
Big time
I'm going to watch it growing
Big time
My parties all have big names
And I greet them with the widest smile
Tell them how my life is one big adventure
And always they're amazed
When I show them 'round my house, to my bed
I had it made like a mountain range
With a snow-white pillow for my big fat head
And my heaven will be a big heaven
And I will walk through the front door
Big time
I'm on my way, I'm making it
Big time
Big time
I've got to make it show, yeah
Big time
Big time
So much larger than life
Big time
I'm going to watch it growing
Big time
Big time
My car is getting bigger
Big time
My house getting bigger
Big time
My eyes getting bigger
Big time
And my mouth
Big time
My belly is getting bigger
Big time
And my bank account
Big time
Look at my circumstance
Big time
And the bulge in my big big big big big big
Big big big big big big big big big
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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This is a great song. I think there is no mystery as to its meaning. It's clearly a hugely negative commentary on commercialism and materialism which we are taught to worship at the expense of substance, value, and humanity. My favorite lines?
1) my heaven will be a big heaven and I will walk through the front door 2) I will pray to a big god as I kneel in the big church 3) I show them round my house, to my bed...I had it made like a mountain range with a snow-white pillow for my big fat head
Peter Gabriel is brilliant and unafraid. Gotta love that!
I always thought he was saying "Higher" and not "Hi There" meaning he's taking it higher. And when he sings this song it sounds like he says "My heaven will be a big hell" but I guess I got those two things wrong. ha ha But anyway, I think he was pretty obvious with his intentions of the song, specially with the 80s being thought of as the materialistic decade (the me decade)... you know, "shop til' you drop" and all that. Though I think the last 20 years has been very materialistic compared to the 80s and has gotten worse... well until the economy started to implode the last 5+ years. I like Peter's newer music but I miss his 80s youthfulness and spunk, stuff like Shock the Monkey and Red Rain. Awesome music.
I've never paid attention to the last line in the song...
Haha... Yeah, his big bulge, lol
Wow, I am shocked everyone missed the biggest thing about this song. Didn't anybody notice the irony that a song about being "Big" and "great" uses no polysyllabic words?
"The place that I come from is a small town. They think so small, they use small words. but not me." Except he describes his greatness almost completely in monosyllabic words.
One of the most fervently ironic (and self-mocking) songs ever written.
To me, this song is about, quite literally, a man's ambitions as he moves from the small town life to the "Big Time". The way it's presented kind of evokes a certain naivete, with the singer expecting to be so great and so happy in his new life. It suggests that reality may come crashing down around him soon.
I too have felt this way. As a child, I moved from a rural area in North Carolina to Raleigh, the capital city. I was on my way up, and I was excited. I wasn't ready for reality, and I got a dose of it. But this song isn't about reality - it's about anticipation, and that's something we can all empathize with.
Like that p.o.v.
@asutbone Reality is overrated.
The theme song for this year's WWE WrestleMania 22 in Chicago!
I think that this is sarcasticaly making fun of cocky celebrities.
Sure, it's about ambition, and about the way ambition changes your image of yourself - the video has a great time playing around with the clichés of stardom, with Peter multiplied by twenty screens.
Beautiful guitar playing too. I love the funky, flexible riff that Robert Fripp pushes out on top of the track.
Everyone says it's about 80's narcissism, yuppies and such. I don't doubt it.
What is it that Peter says at the beginning? It sounds to me like "Hi there," but the lyrics in "So's" booklet say "Suc cess." What is it?
i just find that weeeeeird...why did he agree to that?...anyhow..he says hi there..i think the suc cess thing is just a precurser to the song or whatever..
yes people i guess you've all got it! anyway this song is like a perfect party song along with kate bush's "big sky", both BIG SONGS ;D